Page 14 of Court of Wolves

I killed them, Bryon. Every last living soul in that city—man, woman, and child. All of them. Every. Last. One.

He jolted when her mouth moved soundlessly, her eyes narrowed on him. “What the fuck—”

“Oh keep your hair on,” she huffed. “I was only trying to get you to squawk like a chicken, and it didn’t work anyway. Does that answer your question?”

He relaxed with a groan. “So no magic?”

“No,” she snapped, her voice edged and vicious. “Probably something in the walls, or in this whole fucked up building. It’s like a palace outside,” she snarled. “Marble and pretty and full of blooming flowers, like there aren’t people locked away, being used to slaughter whole cities full of innocents.”

Every snarl drove through his chest until that useless organhurt.“Princess,” he murmured.

“Get fucked.”

“I would, but there are slim pickings in this cell.”

The look she shot him could have melted steel. Or turned his cock to steel. This was a bad fucking time to get hard.

“I didn’t think you were going to hurt me,” he said, holding her glare even as he watched her contemplate his murder. She’dnever go through with it. She couldn’t for the same reason he couldn’t hurt her.

“Bullshit,” she muttered, some of that hollow unhappiness returning.

He hauled himself into her personal space and gave her a glare. “First of all, I know you’re not a fool with severely lacking intelligence. I’m your only ally in this place, and I don’t think the woman smart enough to uncover that bitch queen’s plans would be so blitheringly stupid as to kill her only backup.”

Maia’s eyes had grown wide, though she did give him a look that deemed him mad.

“I’m not done,” he snapped when she opened her mouth. She closed it and gave him a sassy little look that set his blood on fire. He backed up an inch. “Second, you have a severe moral compass. I saw it during our trek through Venhaus. I saw it when you fought to mount a rescue mission for Vawn. When it’s your choice, you wouldn’t kill someone unless they deserved it, and while I piss you off as regularly as you get on my nerves, I haven’t done anything to warrant it.”

“You forced me to eat rock hard bread,” she muttered, her eyes flicking down. To his mouth.Son of a saint fucker.He retreated another inch. “That’s a killable offense.”

“ButI wouldn’t put it past you to use that magic of yours to turn me into a frog, or whatever else you can do.”

“It doesn’t work like that. The only thing I can do is snare minds.”

“That’s not what happened in that forest. You moved the trees and cut us off from the exits.”

Panic turned bright gold to bronze as she stared at me. “You noticed that.”

“I notice everything.” He forced himself to back away from her, slamming his spine against stone again. His hands flexed,craving the impression of her hips upon them. Shit. “You need to get those cuts seen to,” he said to distract himself.

“Oh sure, let me just make a healer’s appointment,” she drawled.

Sharp, sassy mouth. He tipped his head back, staring at the ceiling, mastering his emotions. “Clean it at least. There’s some water for you over there.”

Maia rolled her eyes,again,and crawled across the cell to grab a small paper cup of water and the hunk of stinky blue cheese that had been left for them. He didn’t look. Didn’t allow himself to evenglimpsethe sight of her on hands and knees.

But he couldn’t stop watching her from the corner of his eye.

“Thank you for bringing me back to myself,” she said with a down swept cast of her lashes on her cheeks, that submissive look hitting him like a punch to the jaw. “As a token of my appreciation, I’d like you to eat this.”

As she held out the mouldy cheese, he bared his fangs and growled. Her laughter did not help his painful hard-on one bit. “Fuck off,” he grunted. He didn’t look when she removed her jacket and lifted her shirt, didn’t want to see the mess of her stomach. He was walking too fine an edge right now as it was.

“Why do you think he did it?” she asked quietly. “You’re good with strategy and tactics and all that shit. He said Eosantha was a test. But why? What for?”

A test. Bryon blew out a rough breath. “He wanted to know what you were capable of, what your limits are. And how far you’d go.”

She swallowed; he heard it even if he didn’t look at her. “He threatened my mates.”

“I figured that much.”

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